LHR
Heathrow
- 36 car parks
- 5 parking sites
- Meet & greet
- Park & ride
- Drop-off £7 each time
- 4 terminals
- Inside the ULEZ
Airport parking · 26 UK airports · 64 car parks
Airport parking, compared
Tell me your airport and when you're away. I'll line up the car parks the parking sites I work with sell there, show how each works on the day and whether it's open when you land, and give the full price for your dates where a site tells me one.
Choose your airport
LHR Car parks comparedABZ Parking sites to search
Drawing the map…
Which kind of parking?
Meet and greet
A driver meets you at the terminal, takes your car to their car park and brings it back when you land.
- Suits
- Families with luggage, early flights, anyone who hates shuttle buses.
- Check
- Who drives your car, where it's kept and whether it's insured meanwhile.
Park and ride
You drive to a car park near the airport and a shuttle bus (or a train) takes you to the terminal.
- Suits
- Longer trips and lighter bags, when price matters more than minutes.
- Check
- How often the bus runs at your times, and whether you keep your keys.
On the airport
The airport's own car parks: you park and walk, or take the airport's bus, to the terminal.
- Suits
- Short trips, and anyone who wants the airport's own car park.
- Check
- Booking ahead: the airport's turn-up prices are much higher.
Book ahead: it's the biggest saving there is
The same week's parking can cost several times as much on the day as it does a month ahead. Which? priced the cheapest long-stay week at five airports for February half-term 2026:
Booked a month ahead On the day. Which?, June 2026
What it costs to be dropped off
Most UK airports now charge to stop outside the terminal, and several raised their charges in 2026. Here's each one's charge for the first few minutes and the free way in, from the airports' own pages.
| Airport | Drop-off | Free instead |
|---|---|---|
| GatwickLGW | £10 for 10 minutessource | Long Stay car parks: two hours free, with a free shuttle bus to the terminals. |
| StanstedSTN | £10 for 15 minutessource | Mid Stay car park: an hour free, with a free shuttle bus to the terminal. |
| LutonLTN | £9 for 12 minutessource | Long Stay car park: two hours free, with a free shuttle bus (about 10 minutes, every 20 minutes). |
| BristolBRS | £8.50 for 10 minutessource | The Waiting Zone by the Car Rental Centre: an hour free, with a free shuttle bus to the terminal. |
| EdinburghEDI | £8.50 for 10 minutessource | The Long Stay car park: 30 minutes free, about a 10-minute walk (no shuttle). |
| BirminghamBHX | £8 for 15 minutessource | The Drop Off car park: 10 minutes free, a 5 to 10 minute walk along a covered walkway. |
| BournemouthBOH | £8 for 30 minutessource | No free drop-off |
| East MidlandsEMA | £8 for 10 minutessource | Long Stay 2: an hour free, a 15 to 20 minute walk or a free shuttle bus (which didn't run last winter). |
| ExeterEXT | £8 for 15 minutessource | Car Park P4: 30 minutes free. |
| Leeds BradfordLBA | £8 for 10 minutessource | The One Hour Free zone in the Mid Stay car park, about a five-minute walk. |
| London CityLCY | £8 for 5 minutessource | No free drop-off |
| NorwichNWI | £8 for 20 minutessource | No free drop-off |
| SouthendSEN | £8 for 10 minutessource | No free drop-off |
| AberdeenABZ | £7 for 15 minutessource | The Long Stay car park: an hour free, with a free shuttle bus to the terminal. |
| GlasgowGLA | £7 for 15 minutessource | The Long Stay car park: an hour free, with a free shuttle bus to the terminal. |
| HeathrowLHR | £7 each timesource | Park & Ride car parks, with a free bus to the terminal: 29 minutes free at Terminals 2, 3 and 5, two hours in Terminal 4 Zone A. |
| LiverpoolLPL | £7 for 10 minutessource | Drop-off 2 car park: 20 minutes free, about a seven-minute walk. |
| SouthamptonSOU | £7 for 20 minutessource | No free drop-off |
| NewcastleNCL | £6 for 10 minutessource | The Airport Waiting Zone at Callerton Parkway: 90 minutes free, with a free shuttle bus to the terminal. |
| ManchesterMAN | £5.50 for 5 minutessource | JetParks 1, with a free shuttle bus to the terminals (about 6 minutes). |
| Belfast InternationalBFS | £5 for 10 minutessource | The Long Stay car park has a 15-minute grace period. |
| CardiffCWL | £4.50 for 10 minutessource | Car Park 2: the first 20 minutes are free. |
| PrestwickPIK | £4.50 for 60 minutessource | No free drop-off |
| Belfast CityBHD | £4 for 10 minutessource | The Long Stay car park: 10 minutes free. |
| TeessideMME | £2.50 for 10 minutessource | Up to two hours free if you spend £5 in the landside café or shops. |
| InvernessINV | Freesource | The Free Drop Off area: 15 minutes, no return within an hour. |
| NewquayNQY | Freesource | The West and East car parks: 10 minutes free. |
Before you book meet and greet
Meet and greet is the easiest way to park, and most firms are fine. But rogue operators are a known problem at the big airports, so it's worth five minutes' checking before you hand over your keys.
- Find the company's full name, registered address and a landline, and look it up on Companies House.Gatwick Airport
- Ask for the exact address where your car will be kept, and check that site is real.Warwickshire Trading Standards
- Check it's insured to drive and keep your car, and what its terms say about damage.Which?
- Look for an approval you can check: Safer Parking (formerly Park Mark) for the car park, or an airport's own approved list.Safer Parking
- Read independent reviews, and be wary of rows of identical scores or names that sound official.Which?
- Photograph each side of the car, the mileage and the fuel when you hand it over.Which?
- Pay by credit card: over £100, it gives you a claim against the card company if things go wrong.Which?
How I rank these, and how I make money
Cheapest first: by each site's price for your dates where it gives me one, then by the most recent price I've seen for a day's parking, then by name. You can sort by the quickest to the terminal instead, where meet and greet comes first.
Every link to a parking site is an ad: if you book, the site may pay me commission. Commission never changes which car parks I list or their order.
I can only list parking sites whose listings reach me through affiliate networks, so every site here can pay me (Airparks, Arc Parking, Compare Parking Prices, JustPark, Park BCP). That isn't every car park.
Prices change by the hour. The price on the site when you book is the one you pay, so check what it includes, such as cancellation cover or a booking fee, before you pay.
Questions people ask
What's the cheapest way to park at the airport?
Book ahead rather than turning up: the airports' own turn-up prices are far higher than booking even a few weeks before. Park and ride is usually the cheapest kind, then meet and greet, though it varies by airport and date, so compare for your dates.
Is meet and greet safe?
Most firms are fine, but rogue operators exist: Which? has tracked cars driven at speed and left on open land, and police at Heathrow have logged hundreds of complaints. Check the company's details and reviews, ask where your car will be kept, photograph it at handover, and prefer firms an airport or the Safer Parking scheme approves.
What is Safer Parking, and what happened to Park Mark?
Park Mark was renamed Safer Parking on 1 April 2026 and is now run by Police Crime Prevention Initiatives. It assesses a car park's security, not prices or how a driver treats your car on the way there. Its finder searches by postcode, so you need the address where the car will be kept to check an award.
Do the prices include booking fees?
I only show a price when it's the full price for your stay: either the parking site has told me its prices include every compulsory fee, or I know its booking fee and add it in. Where I can't be sure, I show no price and send you to the site to see its own. Optional extras such as cancellation cover are up to you.
How does Vouchernaut make money from this?
Parking sites may pay me commission when you book through my links, which are marked Ad. Commission never changes which car parks I list or their order.